Everything is impossibly complicated

Posts tagged ‘second amendment’

The response I hear from many conservatives to the events in Fergueson bothers me. Not necessarily the fact that conservatives want to support law enforcement, since that’s a standard conservative position, but how far they’re taking their support for law enforcement, and the way they seem to be making this another partisan issue.

The conservative position on law enforcement makes sense based on their principles of respecting law and order. So I won’t fault them for that at the moment. But surely there’s a possibility of the police going too far–going beyond upholding the law to forcing their own will on others? In fact, conservatives frequently seem to assume that that’s the case for federal law enforcement. Why does local law enforcement get a pass?

I mean, if the police started confiscating guns from concealed carry permit holders in the area of the protests, wouldn’t conservatives go berserk? So why don’t they care about violations of the First or Fifth Amendments, guaranteeing free speech, freedom of the press, and that no person will be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process? Why aren’t they troubled about journalists getting (reportedly) harassed and threatened by the police? Why aren’t they concerned about the (reportedly) massively disproportionate force shown by the police against protestors and people who violate curfew? Why aren’t they upset at the police for (reportedly) failing to protect businesses from looting while harassing and threatening people engaged in lawful protest?

It’s not only liberals who suffer from an overly aggressive and excessively armed police force–a fact that conservatives understand at some level, because of their suspicion of federal law enforcement. By making this a partisan issue and showing lock-step support for the police in Fergueson, conservatives are hurting themselves as well. Conservatives and liberals should be able to stand together on issues of common interest, and a police state is, in principle, something that neither one of them is interested in.